At age two, Stefan Jaynes was
diagnosed with autism. When his parents tried to get early intervention
services from the school district, they ran into resistance.
Although the district developed an IEP for Stefan, the district
did not involve Stefan's parents, nor did the district advise
the parents of their rights.

When the parents contacted the
district for help, Newport News "either ignored or denied
their requests." The IEP was not implemented for several
months.

When the district placed Stefan
in a generic preschool program, he regressed. His parents pulled
him out of this program and implemented an intensive Lovaas/ABA
program.

ANATOMY OF A SPECIAL EDUCATION
CASE

After the parents learned that
they had a right to a due process hearing, they requested a
hearing and won. The Hearing Officer awarded the parents $117,000.

When a Review Officer reduced
this award by half, Pete appealed to federal court.

The court found that Newport
News' IEPs contained numerous deficiencies. The court also found
that the district unilaterally "eliminated numerous programs
from the IEP [but] provided no explanation or justification
for striking these programs."

Newport News appealed to the
U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. On June 7, the
Court of Appeals heard oral argument. On July 10, the court
issued this
decision in Stefan's case.

You can download the pleadings
and decisions in this case from "Anatomy of a Special
Education Case" at the Wrightslaw site.

NOTE:
To read some of these documents, you must have Adobe PDF Reader
software loaded in your computer. You can download Adobe PDF
Reader software free from the Adobe
site.

YOUR QUESTIONS

We expect this decision to evoke
questions for many readers. We are writing an article about
Stefan Jaynes' case which we will publish within the next few
weeks. If you have a specific factual, legal, or procedural
question about THIS CASE,please send your question about THIS
CASE to

We will try to answer your questions
in the forthcoming article.Subscription Information

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